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2 Maccabees 15:39 "For just as it is harmful to drink wine alone, or, again, to drink water alone, while wine mixed with water is sweet and delicious and enhances one's enjoyment, so also the style of the story delights the ears of those who read the work. And here will be the end."

 

I wonder if the author of Maccabees intended the play on words from the dual meaning of "alone." Nowadays, at least, drinking alcohol alone, as in without others, is often seen as a possible indication of a problem, so that's one way it could be harmful. Back then, drinking wine "alone" as in not mixed with water could also have been considered harmful because it was the staple drink (the water being unsafe to drink unless mixed with alcohol), so one would be impaired for the day pretty quickly unless the wine was diluted. 

 

In any event, this verse points out the benefits of mixing things up a little. Wine is good, but alone can lead quickly to impairment; water is essential for life, but was, then, too risky to drink without some purification. But put the two together and you get something "sweet and delicious" that enhances our enjoyment of life!

 

So much of life is like this, when we mix two good things we get something that tempers the extremes of both and makes something even better. Relationships, politics, cooking, work, practically anything we do can benefit from being mixed up a little, even storytelling, as the author of Maccabees reminds us at the close of his work.